eli manning
Syndication: The Record

The Giants legend won’t be eligible until the 2025 class comes along.

First-ballot? Not a first-ballot?

The Pro Football Hall of Fame voters will, at some point down the road, need to debate which of the aforementioned bills Eli Manning fits. The amount of time spent on this discussion could be upwards of 30-40 minutes, if not longer — that’s how balanced the argument is.

This pending conversation won’t take place for another few years anyway — Eli can’t be a part of any Hall of Fame class until the 2025 one.

But regardless of how much time still must pass, the longtime Giant doesn’t seem too phased about anything related to an induction…

“It’s one of those deals that you can’t control, you can’t worry about,” Manning told Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post this week. “Everything has been done. All the passes have already happened. I’m just enjoying retirement and the new things that I’m doing, my family and coaching my kids in their sports. I’m probably more worried about whether they are going to make the All-Star team than I am about whether I’m going to make the Hall of Fame.”

Do I believe Eli is a first-ballot Hall of Famer?

Sure — even if I do think the Pepsi/Frito-Lay commercial with him and Peyton was incredibly horrendous (I won’t change my opinion on that).

As some have depicted before, you can’t write the story of the greatest dynasty in all of sports — the Brady/Belichick Patriots dynasty — without including Eli Manning. He’s the one who defeated them twice on the biggest stage; the only one to oust that miraculous 2007 New England team.

Combine that with top-10 all-time marks in career passing yards and passing touchdowns (along with the 210-game Iron Man streak), and you’ll start to agree with me (which is always a good thing).

Follow Ryan Honey on Twitter: @RyanHoneyESNY

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Ryan Honey is a staff writer and host of the Wide Right Podcast.